Introduction to Online Safety

When you are playing an online multi-player game, it is not always clear who you are playing with, and therefore it is likely you are playing with a total stranger who you don't know.

Online Safety is what we all need. We need to make sure that the strangers we speak to on the internet do not know who we are; we must a remain a stranger to them. Why? Some people decide to follow others around online, and as you tell more and more people this or that it becomes clearer on who you are. He or she then might not be as friendly as you are online, and there are all sorts of stories, some even concerning death or life-changing injuries, about Online 'stalkers'.

How to prevent Online problems

The first step to preventing anything bad from happening to you is to simply not talk to anyone you don't know online. There are sometimes chat options in online games, and it is often best not to use these chat options to talk.

Some online games also have 'safe chat' options, where there are a limited amount of words and phrases you can say. This is probably the best option to take if you can't not talk to anyone, at least you no longer are vulnerable from strangers knowing who you are.

If there are chat options, sometimes it is not for you to speak to other people but to play the game. Some games I go to you need to type certain commands that other people can hear in order to play the game, or you might need to talk to other people as a team to plan your next attack, etc. If this is the case, then make sure you only speak to the people you need to and not to anyone else.